When a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter referred to as a light-sensitive material) is exposed imagewise and then developed, a dye image is formed on an exposed area by the reaction of an oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine color developing agent with a dye-forming coupler.
In this photographic system, a color reproduction technique based on the subtractive process is generally used to form yellow, magenta and cyan dye images.
Examples of photographic couplers useful for forming a yellow dye image are acylacetanilide couplers; those of couplers useful for forming a magenta dye image are pyrazolone, pyrazolobenzimidazole, pyrazorotriazole and indazolone couplers; and those of cyan dye image-forming couples are phenol and naphthol couplers.
The resulting dye image is required to be free from fading and discoloration even if exposed to light or stored under a high temperature and a high humidity for a long time.
The phenol and naphthol couplers for forming a cyan dye image are liable to be unsatisfactory in such characteristics as spectral absorption, heat resistance and moisture resistance. Though various approaches including studies on the substituent have been attempted to solve the above problems, they have not necessarily been successful so far.